EDITORIAL 



Every Farm Electrified 



^^V. HROUGH the co-operation of the Public Service 

 ^*— ^ Company of Northern Illinois and the farmer- 

 ^^_/ owned Eastern Illinois Power Co-operative, every 

 farm in Livingston county, reports say, will soon have the 

 opportunity to get electricity. The two companies are 

 engaged in the "area development" of the territory for 

 electric power. This is a new thing in Illinois. To our 

 knowledge, no county has had its entire area developed for 

 electricity so thoroughly in such a short time. 



The greatest obstacle in getting electricity to the farm 

 has been wrong thinking. A lot of folks had taken for 

 granted that "it can't be done." A Chicago banker several 

 years ago said "farming just isn't a bath tub and electric 

 light business." Farmers have refused to accept that esti- 

 mate. That banker was as wrong in his estimate of agri- 

 culture as he was on many of his investments that went 

 haywire. 



We have got to readjust our thinking about electricity. 

 The fact is that every farm can and should have electricity. 

 Where there's a will there's a way. About 20 years ago 

 when alfalfa was just coming to the fore as a profitable 

 crop in this state, many farmers thought they couldn't 

 grow it. This led a county adviser to say that "condition 

 of mind," not limestone or method of seeding, is the most 

 important factor in growing alfalfa. There are still many 

 failures, yes. But we know that alfalfa can be grown on 

 nearly every kind of soil in Illinois. 



The public utility companies that want to serve 

 farmers are finding a way to do it, and at moderate cost. 

 As farmers we must realize that our 100 per cent co- 

 operation in making wide use of electricity for power as 

 well as light has a bearing on keeping per unit rates and 

 costs low. It seems to us that electricity in the farm home 

 and buildings should come before almost any other ex- 

 penditure. Electricity is not only a convenience. It promotes 

 health and safety, too. It brings the advantages of city 

 life to the farm without the disadvantages. If it promotes 

 decentralization as it is bound to, and more people living 

 on farms, that will be a good thing. 



So let's consider electricity just as great a necessity 

 on the farm as the automobile. If you don't have electric 

 service and want it, get busy. Talk it over with your 

 neighbors. Get organized. Demand action. It will take 

 time, of course, to get your extension, but it will come 

 faster if you speak with a loud voice. 



Strip Mines — A Public Nuisance 



a BOUT 60 miles southwest of Chicago on Route 

 / §. 66 there is an unsightly barren waste, the 

 ^^.^ f result of strip coal mining. Gray subsoil is 

 piled high in rugged ridges. In the distance they resemble 

 miniature mountain ranges. The entire countryside, an area 

 of good black soil and fine farms, is blighted by this 

 public nuisance. Farms in this area are less desirable 

 because of these strip mines. The spoiled lands become 



a burden to the farmers and taxpayers of the neighborhood. 

 They lower values and increase the taxes on the remaining 

 farms and property. After the coal is removed, the land 

 becomes not only a total loss but also a source of constant 

 annoyance to the community. 



No wonder farmers in these areas are demanding 

 that their organizations work to secure legislation forcing 

 the strip mine operators to level off this land. No nation 

 that calls itself civilized should tolerate the ugly mess 

 left by the strip miners. This country made a colossal 

 mistake in allowing its northern virgin forests to be 

 chopped down, the land laid waste and abandoned. 

 Nortfiem Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, in fact the 

 virgin timber lands from coast to coast, bear mute evi- 

 dence of the ruthless exploitation of the early lumber 

 kings. Our statesmen of those days should have shown 

 more regard for the future public interest by requiring 

 selective chopping and replanting. Had they done so we 

 would have more attractive and profitable forests today. 

 And lumber would be less costly. 



The strip miners should be curbed before they ruin 

 any more land. The value of the dab of coal they remove 

 is insignificant when compared with the permanent injury 

 they do to the community, county, and state. The least 

 they can do is level off their diggings and remove the 

 eyesore. If they refuse, the strong arm of government 

 should compel such action. 



For An Honest Dollar 



mT a recent conference of Farm Bureau leaders 



^^, in Washington, demands were renewed for 



4^^y^ \ establishing and maintaining a medium of 



exchange with a stable purchasing and debt-paying power. 



"The time has come when Congress should exercise its 

 constitutional obligation to regulate the value of money by 

 establishing and maintaining as a permanent policy, a man- 

 aged currency regulated on an index of basic conunodity 

 prices, which will maintain a dollar with a constant pur- 

 chasing and debt-paying power," said the statement adopted 

 by the A.F.B.F. executive committee on the 'money ques- 

 tion. ' , • • "• • I ■ 



The only accurate measure of money is what it will 

 buy in the commodity market. By that measure we had a 

 rubber dollar up to 1933 when the Farm Bureau saw its 

 honest money program officially launched by government. 

 The dizzy fall of commodity prices from 1929 and 1932 

 ruined many innocent people. It threw a monkey wrench 

 into the machinery of trade and commerce. It caused na- 

 tional disaster. A recurrence of the chaos we have just 

 come through is what farmers want to avoid. Nothing 

 is of greater importance than keeping the dollar at a con- 

 stant value. Thg man who borrows $100 when com is a 

 dollar a bushel should never be required to pay back five 

 times that amount which he must do with corn at 20 cents 

 a bushel. , . . . , - . ..,, .,. .. 



L A. A. RECORD 



